Current weather

Drug trafficking operation discovered in Augusta

Posted: Thursday, April 01, 1999

By Sandy HodsonMorris News Service

AUGUSTA -- Investigators believe a federal indictment issued in Augusta has uncovered an international drug trafficking organization allegedly involved in murders, tons of cocaine, millions of dollars and a prison escape.

Some of the cocaine the conspirators allegedly smuggled ended up in the Augusta area, according to an indictment unsealed. The indictment was issued last year but sealed until arrests were made in the past week.

Named in the indictment are James Spencer Springette, 38; Marrissa Torres, 26; Kevin Shawn Blyden, 38; Ellis Williams, 28; Patrick Farrington, 28; Ivan Williams, 28; and Francis Moulan, 29. All most recently lived in the Caribbean. All but Ivan Williams and Moulan are in custody.

According to the indictment, investigators claim the conspiracy began back in February 1991 and continued through 1998 in Richmond and Columbia counties, the Atlanta area, Virginia, Florida, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the British Virgin Islands, the British West Indies, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, and even into Ireland where conspirators bought a $304,000 ship to smuggle cocaine.

''The conspiracy took on the form of a loose-knit business organization with different members assuming different roles and performing different duties . . . manager, organizer, supplier, recruiter, cocaine processor, cocaine courier, currency courier,'' the indictment reads.

Investigators' allegations began in February 1991 when Springette met with another man about 200 kilograms, more than 400 pounds, of cocaine. It was during the same year, according to the indictment, that Eugene Smalls began importing cocaine from the U.S. Virgin Islands for sale in the Augusta area.

On March 31, 1991, Smalls was paralyzed and Askia Rojas was killed in an assassination attempt in Decatur, Ga., according to the indictment. At the time, according to investigators in 1991, Smalls and Rojas rented a home in Augusta.

According to the indictment, Springette supplied other dealers in the Augusta area, and business continued here and in the Caribbean, regardless of seizures of cocaine and money.

In June 1996, Springette and several others, two of whom are now dead, were moving more than 1 ton of cocaine in Tortola, British Virgin Islands, when they ran into a police roadblock, the indictment continues.

In a shootout, an officer was killed and the assailants got away, the indictment contends.

One week later, one of those believed present during the shootout, and whom the others suspected was a police informant, was slain, according to the indictment.

The network continued to distribute cocaine and collect hundreds of thousands of dollars from dealers, including those in Augusta, according to investigators.

But by October 1996, investigators in Georgia and elsewhere were hitting the group in the pocketbook - stopping suspected cash couriers and seizing the money, $447,466 in Lowndes County during just one stop.

Those in the alleged network were also being arrested, but on Nov. 24, two identified co-conspirators escaped from prison in a gun battle with guards in the British Virgin Islands.

Each of the people named in the indictment faces three charges: conspiracy to import cocaine, conspiracy to distribute cocaine, and conspiracy to launder money. The charges are punishable by 10 years to life in prison.

The investigation was conducted by the U.S. Customs Services, FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Richmond County Sheriff's Department and police officers in the Caribbean. Prosecutors will be assistant U.S. attorneys J. Michael Faulkner and John T. Garcia.

Those indicted have not yet been arraigned, and no hearings have been set.